This disclosure relates to systems and methods used to control the movement of domestic and wild animals, including systems and methods that make use of electrical conductors. It is known to control the movement of wild and domestic animals by the installation of metallic and non-metallic conductors including electric fences, electrically conductive plates or mats. Prior systems may suffer from a number of shortcomings which include:                I. inflexible installation limited to certain applications and certain target species;        II. difficulty of construction;        III. inability to withstand a wide range of climatic conditions including snow storms or heavy rains;        IV. being prone to corrosion, material decomposition and other decay;        V. the inability to discourage wildlife from attempting to cross conductive elements;        VI. the inability to withstand blunt force impact such as snow plows;        VII. being prone to vandalism and theft of exposed conductive elements; and        VIII. inability to withstand high traffic count, tracked heavy equipment and machinery.        
The commercialization of electrically conductive materials for the construction of roads or highways to control animal movement has been severely limited by the high cost and poor physical properties of such compositions. This is because compared to conventional non conductive aggregate, metallic conductors are extremely expensive, while carbonaceous materials are both physically weak, and being semi-conductors must be used at very high concentrations in order to be effective.
It is known to combine electrically conductive elements and materials with various types of binding agents in order to manufacture conductive materials with a wide range of practical functionality. Such products include electrically conductive concrete, such as Conducrete™, water-resistant membranes for the corrosion protection or dispersal of electrical currents of different surfaces, or flexible conductive wires of various types. It is also known to employ a variety of carbonaceous materials such as carbon black, coke breeze, graphitic powder and carbonaceous fines in combination with cementitious or organic polymeric binders for such purposes. It is also known to manufacture electrically conductive compositions with sufficient strength to support the passage of vehicular traffic and heavy equipment and machinery.
Utilization of electrically conductive fences to discourage the movement of domestic and wild animals into prohibited areas is well known. Such installations provide a high voltage, low amperage, shock to discourage animals without inflicting injury. At gaps between such fences required to allow access to vehicles, heavy equipment and machinery, installation of cattle guards of various types have long been known to discourage animals from breaching the fence opening. Crude attempts have been made to electrically charge such cattleguards to improve the repel rate. However, the current technology suffers from numerous shortcomings, including for example the inability to control animals across a wide range of sizes. For example, many of the existing assemblies are not suitable for controlling large agile animals which are capable of by-passing or jumping over such structures, while some animals with large hooves or paws can walk across cattle guards without being affected. On the other hand, systems focused on larger animals do not have sufficient flexibility of design to address the problem of small animals, such as rodents, which might trespass territory inside buildings in order to reach foodstuff.
One of the present inventors, Richard Lampman, has an existing design which is commercially available and is described in US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0220233 published in August 2013, which teaches connecting exposed brass embedded in composite wood planks to an electric fence energizer to form an electric mat which discourages animals from crossing, and includes warning placards or signage to advise pedestrians.
Electrically charged systems disclosed to date also suffer from shortcomings that the electrical circuits involve earth grounding and that the shock is delivered to the animal's hoof or paw as the electricity takes the path of least resistance.
It is also known to utilize a bi-layer rubber polymer that lies directly on ground, in which the lower layer insulates electricity from ground and the upper layer carries an electric charge which shocks any animal that touches the rubber mat and ground at the same time. The temporary nature and portability of such systems results in limited durability and makes them susceptible to theft and vandalism.
Furthermore, snow can accumulate on top of systems during winter months which permits animals to walk across the assemblage without being shocked. These systems can also be adversely impacted by flooding during spring thaw, or contaminated with detritus, all of which can result in the grid becoming dysfunctional due to various short circuits. Many of the current technologies do not adequately address the fact that such assemblages must be robust enough to handle the high traffic counts, heavy axle weight, movement of heavy tracked equipment and machinery, and withstand the blunt force impact of snow plows in the winter. Existing systems to manage the movement of wildlife do not address the need for heavy vehicles and equipment to cross these electrically charged barriers while the physical consequences of both heavy snow in the winter, and flooding and icing caused by melting snow near these installations reduces the effectiveness and increases the risk of vehicle accidents.
A commercial technology known as ‘Gap Zapper’™ utilizes a flexible mat consisting of two layers of rubber in which a proprietary compound applied to the top layer delivers a similar shock as an electrical fence to any animal that makes contact with it, but has insufficient strength to handle regular traffic of heavy vehicles, and has to be temporarily removed to allow tracked heavy equipment to cross. Snow or heavy rain dramatically reduce the effectiveness of the Gap Zapper™. Furthermore, various electrical animal control systems are relatively inflexible structures not easily adaptable to the wide range of types and sizes of wild and domestic animals Systems with exposed metallic conductors can be prone to damage to the exposed conductors. Such systems have sporadic performance due to the impact of earth ground; the delivery of the shock across an animal's hoof or paw as the electrical current takes the path of least resistance and the impact of the snow and rain. Accordingly, an improved wildlife exclusion system and method could be beneficial in many applications.